Online talk:Cadwell

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Petition for Cadwell (and all Soul Shriven) to have race marked as Soul Shriven[edit]

I know people don't like this, but it sets a bad precedent to call Cadwell an Imperial. He - and all Soul Shriven - should have their races defined as Soul Shriven. If you call Cadwell an Imperial, then by that logic all undead/skeleton NPCs need to have their race marked as their "pre-death" race as well. I would like some consistency here.--Idarak (talk) 13:23, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Unlike skeletons, which largely look the exact same, there are distinct differences between the soul shriven. You can clearly tell Orc, Altmer, Redguard, etc among the soul shriven, which you cannot do for skeletons. Jeancey (talk) 13:58, 29 May 2018 (UTC)
There are differences between Argonian, Khajiit, and human/mer skeletons as well.--Idarak (talk) 17:44, 29 May 2018 (UTC)
Skins are not comparable to polymorphs. Skeletons, both humanoid and beastfolk, are considered to be polymorphs and are therefore counted as a distinct race for the purposes of our infoboxes. Soul Shriven, on the other hand, are like vampires, (Khajiit) dro-m'Athra, etc. Listing Cadwell's race as Soul Shriven would therefore be entirely inconsistent with the rest of the namespace.
I think the point you're missing here is that infoboxes are for technical information, not lore. If we were to list race purely according to lore, then Behemoth enemies would need to be categorised as Argonians. It should be obvious that, from a gameplay perspective, doing so would be ridiculous. Beastfolk skeletons follow this same logic. —Legoless (talk) 21:13, 29 May 2018 (UTC)
No, that is exactly the point I'm trying to make. Lore-wise, Cadwell should be an Imperial, but technical-wise, he should be a Soul Shriven. I'm going on appearance here, not origin - the exact opposite of what you're suggesting. I would call a Behemoth a Behemoth although I would say dro-m'Athra are distinct enough to be their own race.
I'm not going to win this argument and I guess it doesn't really matter but I do disagree with the inconsistency of going by "lore" on this topic and "technical" on other areas.--Idarak (talk) 21:18, 29 May 2018 (UTC)
That assertion is incorrect. It is entirely technically correct to treat Soul Shriven as the game treats them - as a skin applied on top of an existing race. For example, a Khajiit Soul Shriven or a Khajiit vampire should still remain categorised as a Khajiit, since that is the model used by the NPC. Skeleton enemies with Khajiiti bone structure are simply not comparable.
There is no inconsistency here, as should be apparent to you if you are familiar with the in-game differences between skins and polymorphs. The latter have a substantive effect on gameplay (e.g. different character height, different default dance emote), while the former is very much just a cosmetic change. —Legoless (talk) 21:39, 29 May 2018 (UTC)